Venetian blind assemblies are conventionally suspended in a window or other frame opening from a complex headrail assembly which contains tilting and lifting hardware. Where greater stability for the blind assembly is required and/or where the blind assembly is not required to be raised or lowered, it may alternatively be suspended within the opening between special heavy top and bottom rails or slats. Such rails are pivotally mounted in the frame opening and the suspension for slats intermediate the rails is secured to the rails. These headrail assemblies and special top and bottom rails are much more expensive than the balance of the blind assembly. Further, since the headrail assemblies and top and bottom rails or slats comprise different components than the rest of the blind assembly, they necessarily complicate and increase the cost of inventory. The use of special top and bottom rails or slats results in a nonuniform coverage of the frame openings and gaps appearing at the suspension edges of the blind assembly.
Since color matching is a very important consideration from an aesthetic viewpoint, it is necessary that the components comprising the headrail assemblies and special top and bottom rails be color matched with the intermediate slats making up the major portion of the blind assembly. This further adds to the cost and complexity of inventory and of the complete blind assembly.
A further disadvantage of conventional blind assemblies is that closure of the assembly is often non-uniform from top to bottom. This is particularly true where the bottom rail or slat is not fixed in a manner to tension the suspension means supporting the intermediate slats.
Most conventional blind assemblies tend to remain in a particular tilt position of the slats after a force has been applied to change the tilt angle of the slats. In some instances, it is desirable to have a venetian blind assembly which will automatically return to either a slat open or slat closed position after a tilt changing force has been removed from a tilt control mechanism.
It is therefore an object of my invention to eliminate need for separate heavy top and bottom rails or slats in a venetian blind assembly and at the same time eliminate need for separate headrail assemblies and the hardware necessary to pivot the heavy slats with respect to the headrails.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a means for suspending a venetian blind assembly in an opening such that there can be a complete closure of the opening without any unusually large daylight cracks appearing at either the top or bottom of the blind assembly.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a venetian blind hanger pivot member supporting a suspension blind assembly which may be tilted with a minimum of effort about a suspension means.
A further object of the invention is to provide for a venetian blind assembly which may automatically return to either a slat open or slat closed position upon removal of a tilting force from a tilt mechanism.